BREAM: Who we are and What we do

BREAM represents the marine side of the Bermuda Biodiversity Project (BBP) at the Bermuda Zoological Society (BZS).

The Bermuda Biodiveristy Project is the umbrella name for all research at the BAMZ facility, including projects conducted in conjunction with other organisations. The BBP goals are to initiate and coordinate a comprehensive local and international effort to catalogue all of Bermuda's flora and fauna, forming the basis for the sustainable use of the Island's living resources.

The BZS was created to enhance the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum & Zoo for the benefit of Bermuda, its residents and visitors. The Bermuda Government provides continuous support of the physical plant and operational needs, while the BZS, a not-for-profit organisation, supports the development, education and research programmes at BAMZ, and organises special exhibits and activities for the community.

The aims of BREAM are:

A) To support multidisciplinary studies of Bermuda’s coral reef complex in order to enhance the research and management of our unique marine environment. This is accomplished in several ways:

* through direct, targeted studies by the resident team to address management/research needs; * by encouraging collaborative ventures with other local or visiting scientists; * by providing logistic support to other researchers; * by securing funds for specific projects to be undertaken either by the resident team, or in collaboration with overseas scientists; * and by sharing all information with the scientific community through databases, publications, workshop and conferences.

B) To properly document and orchestrate data collection, management and sharing through the development of a GIS framework in order to promote improved local, regional and international understanding of coral reef systems. This is accomplished by:

* collating all available historical information; by establishing standards for data collection; * by sharing information; * by encouraging the adoption of policies by the Environment Ministry through which local and visiting research studies can be tracked to ensure that a copy of all findings is secured locally.

C) To integrate the resource managers, the scientific community and the users in the management processes to define common goals and to recognize the significant pressures and conflicts that are placed upon our marine environment. This is accomplished through:

* specific workshops held locally with representatives of all stakeholder groups, building upon the framework of the Bermuda Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.

D) To promote a range of public awareness programmes, with the goal of promoting care of our unique coral reef ecosystem. This is accomplished both directly through:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Here is a google map of all the Open Wrecks in Bermuda, as posted by the Bermuda Government Department of Environment and Natural Resources. I fixed a couple of location errors. Use at your own risk, of course.

BREAM, as part of the Bermuda Biodiversity Project at BZS, has developed the most comprehensive maps of Bermuda's coral reefs and other marine habitats that exist. In this post we will describe how we mapped all of the 35,000 patch reefs in the North Lagoon of Bermuda.

Our goal was to create a Geographic Information System (GIS) of all the reefs found around Bermuda. A GIS is a computerized map that also contains information about each object mapped. Computerized maps are better than paper maps because once you put all the information you know into the program, you can then ask it to tell you new information which the program can calculate based on what you told it. Some questions you can ask a computerized mapping programme are listed at the bottom of this post.

Before we mapped the location of each reef into a GIS (also called a geo-referenced map database), we needed a set of images of the entire Bermuda reef platform. The BBP, with assistance from the Dept. of Conservation Ser…

This abundance of ice cube shaped trapezoids are nicknamed “clod cards”: a simple yet effective way to measure water movement as a proxy for current and flow exposure at underwater sites (developed by Doty et al., 1971).

The mechanism is straight-forward. These plaster of paris ‘clods’ are all identical in composition, shape and size. Each clod should therefore dissolve slowly underwater at a constant rate.

By weighing the dry clod cards before deployment, leaving them underwater for a fixed time period (usually between 24-48 hours) and then collecting them and re-weighing each clod, we can determine the precise weight of plaster of paris lost from each card. Clods losing more weight were exposed to greater water flow than cards exposed to less water flow.